HITN's Opioid Safety Alliance called for such measures as part of its five-point, technology-enabled plan to combat the opioid crisis, which says in part, "Telehealth and digital virtual peer support programs should be fully leveraged to provide substance use disorder treatment options. Congress ... and the administration should knock down regulatory barriers to providing treatment virtually."

"The Medicare population has among the fastest-growing rates of opioid use disorder and the program remains unacceptably slow in embracing the power of technology to solve this crisis,"said HITN Opioid Safety Alliance Executive Director Joel White. "We know that telehealth can bridge the gap of distance and stigma by allowing beneficiaries to receive care when and where they need it, but inflexible bureaucratic restrictions are putting that possibility out of reach for too many. This bipartisan legislation will right that wrong and expand access to treatment via telehealth for Medicare beneficiaries struggling under the weight of addiction. Health IT Now thanks Senators Thune, Warner, Cardin, Cornyn, Schatz, and Wicker for their commitment to leveraging the power of technology to treat and prevent the scourge of opioid misuse. We look forward to working with them to advance these and other critical solutions to this nationwide epidemic."